Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Feb 22, 2010

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This is one of the most common questions small business owners and new bloggers ask. Blogging is uncharted territory. What should I write about? How often do I need to write? How long should a blog post be? Good questions all, but I’m focusing on the last one in this post. – How Long Should a Blog Post Be? (Small Business Search Marketing)

I agree with Matt – blog posts should be as short or long as they need to be. Maybe that’s not a straight enough answer for some, but a blog post should be long enough to explain whatever it is you’re posting about. You shouldn’t get overly concerned about how long it needs to be for SEO – remember, you’re writing for people (who buy your products) not for computers. I do think that longer posts should be broken into sections with subheadings and some pictures, which makes them easier to read and scan for information.

What single characteristic do successful companies share? The ability to allocate resources effectively. Effective resource allocation maximizes return and minimizes waste. Yet allocating resources effectively is harder than it looks. There are a lot of motivations to overspend in certain areas and underspend in others. Here are five areas in which companies overspend, and five areas in which companies often underspend. – Five areas businesses spend too much or too little (Econsultancy)

It’s interesting to see marketing on both sides of the list, but I think that does reflect the truth that while companies may spend a lot on marketing, they often don’t spend it on the right parts of marketing. And I heartily agree with design & development being on the underspend side (even though that’s what we do) – having a good online presence is key to any successful business these days, and many companies just slap up any old thing, which makes them stand out as much as pigeon on the streets of NYC.

Finally, notice that having lots of backlinks pointing to each of your single posts is not necessary to make sure they will have a good PageRank. If you have a good amount of backlinks pointing to your homepage, and use the two methods I mentioned above, your link equity will naturally spread all over your website, and even single posts will no backlinks at all will gain some PageRank. – How Do I Get Backlinks to My Posts, Making Sure They Will Get a Good PageRank? (Daily Blog Tips)

Backlinks are an important part of any SEO strategy, but they do require writing content that is updated frequently – a blog vs. just a static corporate website. Another good way to get backlinks is to approach some other bloggers in your niche and see if you can link to each other’s posts occasionally (ones that make sense). This is also a good way to find places to guest blog (and offer to have people guest blog on your own site).

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of social media, and I’m reminded of where we were in the mid-90s with the advent of the web. I lived and worked through Web 1.0, and am feeling a sense of déjà vu as we play out the same routines with Web 2.0 and beyond: social media is getting the same basic adoption patterns, the same reactions and overreactions. It’s just different tools and terminology. We have a long way to go before everyone and their cousin uses social networks more than they email, or tweets more than they call, but nobody can deny the way we communicate has once again been changed forever. – 10 Things to Avoid In Social Media (Web Worker Daily)

Social media really isn’t anything new – we’ve had media that was social for quite awhile, especially online with bulletin boards and other types of community. What is new is the wide-spread adoption and how social media is being used in terms of networking, communication and marketing. Whether you’re new to social media or not, this post has some great tips of things to avoid.

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